prospect

A prospect is the possibility that something fabulous will happen. After you graduate top of your class at Harvard, for example, your job prospects look great.

Prospect is from the Latin word prospectus which means a "view or outlook." A prospect is still a way of looking ahead and expecting good things. It's like potential in that it's something that might be but isn't yet. There is also the potential for something bad to happen, but prospects usually look good. In the 1800s, when men in floppy brown hats started saying "There's gold in them there hills!" the noun became a verb — to prospect is to search for gold. Either way, when you have prospects, you have a golden future.